SANTA CLARA, Calif — The Jets lost their opener 32-19 to the 49ers on Monday night. The team is now 0-1 for the fifth time in six years. Here are some thoughts and observations from the game:

1. I don’t think anyone is overreacting to this loss, based on what I saw after the game and early Tuesday morning. Jets fans understand who the 49ers are and that the Jets lost to a very good team. This game gave you no reason to believe that the Jets still can’t win 10 games this season.

Here’s the disappointing part: This was a chance for the Jets to make a statement that they truly are among the best in the NFL. Everyone has been praising this roster for months, and some are predicting a Super Bowl appearance for this team. They didn’t look like they were in that league on Monday night.

Even if this game had been close, I think you’d feel like the Jets are in the top tier of the NFL. Now, there are still questions — not whether they can still be good, but how good. There’s a difference between predicting they’ll make the playoffs and predicting they’ll play in or win the Super Bowl. The Jets, in my opinion, have a long way to go to be in the league of the 49ers, Chiefs, and Ravens.

The schedule changes for the Jets now. Instead of a tough test, they now get three straight games where they are expected to be untested. The Jets defense had a bad night on Monday. They should improve quickly against these three opponents. The Titans scored 17 points against the Bears in Week 1 and quarterback Will Levis looked bad. The Patriots pulled off a surprise in Cincinnati but scored only 16 points. The Broncos start rookie Bo Nix at quarterback and scored 20 points against the Seahawks.

Now is the time for the Jets to beat lesser opponents. If they don’t, there are bigger questions than where they fit into the NFL hierarchy.

2. The knee-jerk reaction to Monday’s loss is that the Jets really need Haason Reddick, who is still a go-getter. I didn’t really see it that way. Reddick is a one-trick pony. He’s very good at that one trick, but he’s only a pass rusher. The Jets’ problem Monday night wasn’t their pass rush. It was their leaky run defense. They failed to set the edge and didn’t do a great job tackling.

The player the Jets were missing on Monday wasn’t Reddick. It was John Franklin-Myers, who quietly set the tone for this defensive line. The Jets traded Franklin-Myers to the Broncos after acquiring Reddick. They felt they couldn’t keep both of their high salaries on the team.

This is where the Reddick trade really ruins them. I would argue that Franklin-Myers would have helped them more against the 49ers than Reddick.

I think the Jets defense will look a lot better not facing Kyle Shanahan, Brock Purdy, Deebo Samuel, etc., but the run defense is something to keep an eye on.

3. My review of Aaron Rodgers’ 2024 debut: Pretty good. It wasn’t spectacular, and he certainly missed a few throws, including the one that was intercepted. But overall, Rodgers showed flashes of his old self. His touchdown pass was vintage Rodgers, baiting the defense out of line and then throwing it deep to Allen Lazard.

There was never a moment in the game where I felt like he was immobile, but he didn’t have to move all that much either. Truth be told, everything about the Jets offense was hard to judge because they only had 49 plays. I didn’t walk away from this game feeling better or worse about Rodgers. I do expect magic from him and he didn’t have it Monday night, but that’s probably unreasonable to expect in his first full game in 20 months.

4. Coaches always stress the possessions just before and after halftime as being crucial to the game, and that was certainly the case on Monday night. The 49ers held the ball for 12 minutes and 30 seconds in the two drives that sandwiched halftime. They scored 10 points on the drives and essentially knocked the Jets out of the game. The Jets offense stood helplessly on the sideline, waiting to get the ball back, and they kept waiting.

The 49ers had four drives of 11 plays or more. It’s hard to win when you let the other team hold the ball for that long. The Jets defense couldn’t get off the field and the Jets offense didn’t have many chances. This is the opposite of complementary football.

Again, as I said above, I think this will be corrected as the Jets enter the JV portion of their schedule. They may not play a better team all season than the one they saw on Monday night.

Revealing statistic

The Jets had possession of the ball for a total of 6:21 of the 30 minutes in the second and third quarters.

Surprising number of snaps

We knew WR Mike Williams would have a limited role in his first game back from an ACL injury, but limited? He only played nine snaps in the game.

Game ball

There wasn’t much good in this game for the Jets, but WR Allen Lazard had six catches for 89 yards and two touchdowns. He did have a third-down drop on the first series, but this was still a nice rebound game for Lazard after a rough first season with the Jets.